Policy meeting to focus on holdings of mortgage and Treasury securities

Federal Reserve officials are likely to keep interest rates steady at their policy meeting this week and drill down into details about when and how to reduce their large holdings of mortgage and Treasury securities.

The challenge in their postmeeting policy statement will be to acknowledge the handful of disappointing economic growth indicators since officials last gathered in mid-March without suggesting they are ready to veer from the policy path they have sketched out at recent meetings. The two-day policy meeting begins...